Cattails

Transcript:

The river’s mouth speaks, though settlers often don’t know how to listen. Remember, this is marshland, look across time for signs from the past and future. Like the meandering river, time doesn’t move in a straight line. Peat bogs and wetlands were buried under 25ft of dirt and gravel over a century ago.

Closer to this time heavy machinery excavates vast amounts of dirt and debris, much of it highly polluted. In those movements to remedy past mistakes the marsh ecosystem shares glimmers of its resilience. A bulldozer is halted. Thick green shoots jut up and block its movement. Sedges and cattails roar back to life after being trapped underground for over a century. Improvement was imagined as a straightened line, but water moved in cycles, retaining a history of all that it has encountered.

Breath in deeply through your nose, four, three, two, one. Now breath out slowly through your nose, five, four, three, two, one. Breath in, constricting the back of your throat. Emulate the sound of an ocean, hear your breath in your ears. Breath out, once again sounding the cycles of water.